Potholes and Road Apples

The forecast for steady rain is prompting organizers of the newly formed League of Lancaster Bicyclists to stay inside on Saturday.

The group will meet at the WOW Wingery in Harrisburg Avenue’s College Row, across from Franklin & Marshall College, at 1:30 p.m. Instead of the planned 45- or 26-mile rides, there will be a video presentation of Lancaster County’s new “Biking the Backroads BicycleTour.” The preview ride was intended to promote the development of additional signed Heritage Bicycle Routes in the county.

Riders attending the event will be entered into a raffle for a $25 gift certificate from a local bicycle shop.

In June, Lancaster’s Intelligencer Journal carried a feature article about Chad Gerlach, a California cyclist of great talent who had abandoned cycling in 2002 when he fell into a life of crack addiction and alcoholism on the streets. After five years, in which he was twice stabbed, Gerlach successfully went through and intervention program and had recovered. He began riding and within months was challenging pros.

The Lancaster article appeared shortly before Gerlach raced in the Race Avenue criterium for the Italian Amore e Vita cycling team. He was narrowly edged out at the line and took second in the pro/1/2/3 race.

Last week, the Sacremento Bee, Gerlach’s hometown newspaper carried an article that the cyclist had again picked up a bottle and was again living on the streets.

Happy birthday to Lancaster County’s Floyd Landis, who turns 34 today.

Floyd Landis is stretching his cycling season into November with his participation in the Tour of the Southland next month.

Landis, a Lancaster County native, will compete with the five-man cycling-nzshop.com-bioSPORT team in the six-day, nine-stage tour which begins Nov. 2 on New Zealand’s South Island, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The announcement sparked immediate debate among Kiwis. “Should disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis be allowed on the Tour of Southland,” the New Zealand Herald asks. 

Landis won the 2006 Tour de France but was disqualified and banned for two years after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. He returned to cycling at the Tour of California in February.

Race Director Bruce Ross said there had been opposition in some circles to the American’s inclusion in the New Zealand race, which is sanctioned by cycling’s world body, the UCI.

“I’ll be treating his entry like every other entry,” Ross said. “I realize there’s a background. He’s served his time. He’s another entry in the Tour of Southland, a very exciting one, (and) it’s great that he wants to come here.”

Dr. Andy Baldwin and his father, former state Rep. Roy Baldwin, and the rest of their Cross Pennsylvania Health Ride crew will arrive in Lancaster County Thursday afternoon.

Baldwin, of television’s “Bachelor” fame, is doing the 420-mile bike ride to draw attention to the epidemic of childhood obesity. At elementary school assemblies across the state, Baldwin, a triathlete, is promoting exercise, activity and a health diet.

The group will be on day five of their trek when they arrived at Park Elementary School at about 1 p.m. There will be two assemblies and an event at the town’s River Park.

Andy Baldwin is chronicling his journey on his blog.

Cooper, the British car company, which makes the Mini and was a highly successful race car company in the 1950s and 1960s, is launching a bicycle line.

According to British cycling Web site BikeRadar.com, four models are expected to be unveiled next week. Three of those are single-speeds named after Formula One races that Cooper cars won, Monza and Sebring. One is a limited edition and one is a five-speed.

All bikes will feature a flip-flop hub, which accepts both fixed cogs and freewheel. The bikes will also feature Brooks Saddles, Sturmey Archer Cranks, Reynolds Tubing and Tektro Brakes.

The Sebring would sell in the U.K. for 595 pounds, or $946 by today’s exchange rate.

Dream Ride Projects recently became the county’s first “Bike Friendly” organization, and one of only four in the state. Dream Ride founder and executive director Mike Ridgeway hopes to use the designation, from the national League of American Bicyclists, as a springboard to eventually having the whole county listed as “Bike Friendly.”

Here is the article that appeared in Friday’s Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era:

Local bike group nets national honor 

BY BERNARD HARRIS
Staff Writer
Lancaster’s Dream Ride Projects last week became the first organization in the county — and one of the first in the state — to be recognized as “bike friendly” by the national League of American Bicyclists.

Maybe that designation shouldn’t be so surprising. Dream Ride Projects is a non-profit organization that promotes cycling, teaches riding skills to children and adults and holds charity bicycle rides.

Maybe more surprising is Dream Ride Projects founder and executive director Mike Ridgeway’s ambitious plan for the recognition.

“I’m hoping to use this as a launching pad to get the whole county recognized as bike friendly,” Ridgeway said.

The challenge, he said, is a countywide recognition requires at least a majority of the Lancaster’s 60 separate municipalities to be “bike friendly.”

He plans to start with those municipalities which already promote cycling. East Donegal, Manheim and Warwick townships and Lititz Borough are at the top of his list.

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The League of American Bicyclists is reporting that 14.3 percent more people commuted by bicycle in 2008 then the year before. And, a whopping 43.3 percent more people commuted by bicycle last year then in 2000.

According to a report in the Biking Bis blog, Pennsylvania was 29th in a ranking of states by percentage of bike commuters. Of the commuters in the Commonwealth, .412 percent regularly went to work on a bicycle. The national average was .545, or just over one-half of one percent. The District of Columbia led the nation with 2.33 percent of its commuters using bikes.

The Biking Bis report fails to mention the $4-per-gallon price of gas that got many commuters pedaling last year.

Lancaster County native Andy Baldwin, the U.S. Navy doctor and triathlete of “The Bachelor” reality show fame begins a cross-state Health Ride in Pittsburgh Friday. The 420-mile tour includes stops at elementary schools where Baldwin and other participants will promote exercise and a health diet. The tour comes to Lancaster County next Thursday, with presentations at Park Elementary in Columbia. Accompanying Baldwin will the U.S. surgeon general, the state Health secretary and Baldwin’s father, former state Rep. Roy Baldwin.

Below is the article from Thursday’s Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era:

‘Bachelor’ and triathlete bikes across state
to raise awareness regarding childhood obesity

BY CLAUDIA W. ESBENSHADE
Staff Writer

Some people will do almost anything to get others to pay attention to their cause. U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Andy Baldwin, of 2007 “The Bachelor” fame, is one of those people.

Tomorrow he’ll kick off a 420-mile bike ride across Pennsylvania to raise awareness of the health risks associated with childhood obesity.

Baldwin, a physician, is hoping to inspire the children across the state to get moving and start exercising because, according to the state’s department of health, at least 20 percent of Pennsylvania children are overweight.

Baldwin, a 1995 Manheim Township High School graduate and son of Roy and Cindy Baldwin of Lancaster, is a triathlete. He’s taking part in The Pennsylvania Health Ride and Kids Fitness Days because “children are the untapped potential in today’s world,” he said.

“It gives me energy,” 32-year-old Baldwin said. “When I see them smile and respond to what I am trying to teach them, it makes it all worth it.
“With the right spark and the right mentorship, you can see these children grow,” Baldwin said. “So many can putt, putt through life and they don’t have that spark anymore. With the right connection, they can have such better lives.”

Baldwin believes role models will make it happen. “There needs to be more action and less finger-pointing,” Baldwin said, during a recent phone interview from his now-home Washington, D.C. “We need people to walk the walk or, in this case, bike the bike.”

What began as Baldwin’s dream to ride bike across the country has transformed into a statewide ride in which others can participate, en route or at various stops.
The ride starts in Pittsburgh and will include events at various schools along the way. These schools will host health fairs featuring the ride participants. It will end in Philadelphia Saturday, Oct. 10.

Baldwin’s local stop will be at Park Elementary School in Columbia on Thursday, Oct. 8. Working closely with the Lighten Up Lancaster initiative and the NRG group, Baldwin is looking forward to sharing the road with fellow riders, including acting Rear Admiral and U.S. Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, and Everette James, the state’s secretary of health. Also riding with his father, Roy, who last year underwent several heart surgeries.

Baldwin is excited to return home and travel the roads where he grew up. “My dad is who taught me to ride,” Baldwin said. “I can remember buying my first 10-speed at Sears at Park City when I was 10 or 11.”
“He was my mentor growing up, setting the example of stewardship and giving back,” Baldwin said.

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One-hundred cyclists were expected to ride into Lancaster County today as the five-day Brita Climate Ride makes its way from New York City to Washington, D.C.

The group is spending the night at Camp Andrews, 1226 Silver Springs Road, Holtwood. There, the group will hear from guest speakers about global warming and how individuals can minimize their impact on the environment. The public is invited.

Speakers for the evening are: Roz Savage, the first woman to row across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, an environmental activist, and a United Nations Environmental Program Climate Hero; Wood Turner, the executive director of Climate Counts; and Colin Beavan, aka NO IMPACT MAN, the man who lived one year with zero carbon impact. A movie about his experiences will be previewed. You can watch the trailer here.

On Tuesday morning, the riders will depart Reisterstown, Md. On Wednesday afternoon, they will rally at the U.S. Capitol for bicycle transportation, clean energy and legislative action to reduce climate change. This is the second year the Climate Ride has been held and stopped in Holtwood.